Ignition
by loganjames210
Summary: AU. An alien vessel did land on the Moon but it wasn't the Ark. Instead, the Apollo 11 crew discover a behemoth ship filled with horror and dread.


**Ignition**

20 July, 1969

Apollo 11 Moon Landing

The signal between Apollo 11 and Earth was lost. The people of Earth watched with growing tension wondering what could possibly be happening on the Moon. Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins were completely cut off from their home planet, 384,400km away. Or so it was believed. In a private room of the highest ranking government officials, a secret mission was being orchestrated.

"Neil, you are dark on the rock. Mission is a go," said the CIA executive. "You have twenty-one minutes".

Neil turned to Buzz. "Time to get to work".

Neil and Buzz hopped across the surface of the moon, marvelling at the lower gravity and how light they felt on this strange and unfamiliar terrain. As they hopped along they came closer and closer to a peak that would allow them a better view of their surroundings and where there target was.

Neil came up to the mountain top and froze.

"What is it, Neil? What do you see?" called out Buzz.

Neil turned back to Buzz. His expression was impossible to see through the polarised visor but underneath the dark polarised glass, Neil's eyes were wide and haunted, like he had seen something that was both amazing and wondrous to behold yet haunting and more terrifying than anything he could ever imagine. "Come … and see for yourself …"

What met Buzz's gaze when he too reached the peak left him speechless. His breath caught in his larynx and he held his breath without realising. What he saw was something that no one back home would ever believe, or be able to comprehend in some cases. It was immense. It looked like it would have been several kilometres long. Yes, it must have been at least ten kilometres long and it stood taller than anything he had seen. It lay in a crater so deep, he doubted they would have enough time to get down to investigate and get back to the ship. But they had to try. They had to find out what was in this alien vessel.

Now that both Neil and Buzz stood before the alien spacecraft. They were fully able to comprehend the size of it. The Empire State Building in America was 443m, a massive and impressive work of modern architecture. This … ship, that was before them. It must have been almost three kilometres to the top. This ship was the most monstrous, foreboding, and massive thing that both Neil and Buzz had ever seen in their short lives. They would only be able to search a fraction of the ship. They believed that to search the entire ship it would likely take months. Maybe even years. But unfortunately they only had … how long did they have?

Buzz radioed to Mike, who was back at the Apollo 11 spacecraft. "Mike, come in, Mike."

Mike responded within a few seconds. "Buzz, I read you. What's the problem?"

"No problem, Mike, I just need confirmation of how much time we have remaining to carry out our mission."

"Roger that, Buzz. You have fifteen minutes left to carry out the mission. Over."

"Thanks, Mike."

Fifteen minutes. Neil and Buzz would have to hurry if they wanted to find out anything about the alien spacecraft.

"Come on, Neil, let's hurry along. We don't have a lot of time and we'll be lucky if we find anything significant … judging by the size of this thing …"

If Neil and Buzz thought that the exterior of this ship would prepare them for the size of the interior, they were sorely misled. There was so much going on in this ship. Tall archways, passageways, lifts, and things that could only be described as … stairways?

As the two astronauts cautiously wandered throughout the ship interior, collecting stray pieces of metal and other curious fragments along the way, they came across something. Something that chilled them to their very cores. Canisters. Canisters that filed down isles among isles of pathways. The canisters themselves were no more daunting than anything else on this ship. It was what lay behind the clear, glass-looking material at the top of each canister. Gigantic, skeletal, mechanical faces, lurked just behind the glassy material of the canisters. These faces didn't appear to be awake, which for Neil and Buzz, was something they were truly thankful for. Whatever, these alien things were, they stood over twenty or thirty feet tall and they were in each canister. There must have been thousands or tens of thousands, nay, hundreds of thousands. The isles stretched further than observable by the human eye. That made Neil shiver. The human eye. These … things … weren't human. What if there was one on this ship that was awake? And had been observing their every move from the moment they had stepped foot inside this nightmare ship. Or even when they had first landed several hours ago. The interior of this ship looked haunting. It was dry which was to be expected. But also unnaturally dark, which had prompted them to turn on their flashlights. Still, it seemed like this ship was alive. Like it was breathing. Strange echoes created a haunted kind of ambience within the ship which had set both Neil and Buzz on edge. They would be cautious. If truth be told, both astronauts weren't sure if they would make it back to the Apollo 11 spacecraft. This ship and the occupants of it didn't seem like they were really asleep. They felt like they were being watched. Like they were being toyed with. Their hearts thumped loudly in their chests. Their breath became ragged and uneven. Cold sweat cascaded down their foreheads and they hoped that they would make it out alive. God willing.

There was eight minutes left. The journey back out of the crater would take five minutes. They had to leave very soon before their time ran out and Mission Control would re-establish the signal with Apollo 11. Neil and Buzz had collected as much as was possible for them to carry, even with the lesser gravitational pull of the Moon. They hopped down the archway back towards the outside of the ship. "Fuck. I am glad to be leaving this place. Something just didn't … feel right in there," said Buzz who was going along the passageway at a slightly faster pace than Neil. Neil had to agree, this ship, while massive and fascinating, was spooky and had made him quite paranoid. While these thoughts crossed his mind, he lost his footing and tripped. He landed on his side and thankfully didn't break or crack his visor. Neil swore at himself for his carelessness. One wrong step could end his life if he wasn't careful. "You OK?" called out Buzz.

"Yeah, just had a bit of a tumble. I'm fine. And my suit is undamaged," responded Neil.

Brushing himself, Neil took a glance around … and froze. Something had moved. Buzz came up to Neil, "Come on, Neil, we got to keep moving, we don't have much time-"

"Shh! There's something moving over there …" said Neil in a hoarse whisper.

Buzz snapped his head towards the direction that Neil was looking. Tall pillars stood in rows of this part of the ship. But there was nothing moving. There was just the unnatural darkness that surrounded them, with only there flashlights breaking threw a few metres of the dark.

"Neil, if something _was_ moving, then we definitely need to leave right now," whispered Buzz.

Neil didn't shift his gaze. He stood frozen and looked at the place where he saw the shadows rearrange … where he saw the movement. He knew something had been watching them.

Without shifting his gaze from the spot Neil walked slowly backwards towards the exit. When both Neil and Buzz had walked back about twenty metres and could see the light that was being cast by the Sun, they turned on their heels and bolted. Not daring to look back. It was the fastest that they could run with the low gravity of the Moon and it felt excruciatingly slow to them. The exit was still at least twenty metres away and they had six minutes to make it back to Apollo 11. Neil and Buzz desperately ran towards the sunlight. They would not die here. The adrenaline in their bodies allowed them to push for the remaining ten metres. Their breath coming out in short, ragged bursts as they ran down the passageway. The bulky and stiff spacesuits that both astronauts wore didn't help their situation and made running that much more of an ordeal. A tear streamed down Neil's face.

Not now … not like this …

They made it. They were panting and sweating and were complete wrecks after their terrifying run for their lives. But they made it back to the peak and had headed back over to the Apollo 11 spacecraft. With just twelve seconds to spare. They had their samples from the alien spacecraft and loaded them back on the spacecraft. With just seven seconds left before the signal was re-established, Buzz looked at Neil. "Let's agree to never return here"

Neil looked straight back at Buzz. "Agreed … never …"

Apollo 11 later came back to Earth and landed in the North Pacific Ocean.

The crew of Apollo 11 were welcomed back with cheers as they returned to America and waved and smiled. But there eyes were not of happy people. They were haunted eyes. Haunted from what they had discovered. They were not alone.

They were not alone …

The ship breathed. The haunting echoes of the nightmare ship moved through the vast space. Steam exhausted from tubes that ran across the walls that moaned a stirred.

The tubes moved from running across the walls to running along the floors and passageways of the ship. Dim red beams of light began to flicker and tremble throughout the behemoth ship.

Down in the cellar of the ship the red lights beamed into life, creating a sinister and hideous display of crimson hitting and bouncing off the metal and creating a hazy atmosphere. The lights continued to light up the cellar until they came to a stop at and enclosed area. Surrounded by reinforced metal and a powerful hull. There was a face. The face was skeletal too but was far more distinguished. There was a distinction in the appearance of this face. The face was metal but had high pronounced cheeks and a strong and defined jaw. There was the ghost of a scowl etched on the face, like it was dreaming about something it despised. The massive metal humanoid was held up by mechanical arms that were designed to suspend the mechanical humanoid figure off the ground but in an upright position. The mechanical humanoid stood around thirty feet tall.

The body of this massive metal being suddenly jolted to life. Acid green optics flickered and ignited into existence. The mechanical arms that held the being up lowered it to the ground before disengaging and releasing the towering figure. The humanoid went to a kneeling position.

After taking a few moments the humanoid stood upright again and took in its surroundings. The scowl still etched on its faceplate. Marching forward, it left the chamber in which it had slumbered and walked into the passageway where all the other mechanical humanoids hibernated. A control panel transformed into existence before the mighty humanoid. A hideous display of red glyphs and symbols appeared on the screen. Using its seven digit hand it began to press certain glyphs on the display. When it was finished it stepped back and watched as each canister began to simultaneously shoot steam as the metal of the canisters began to shift and open. One by one, the skeletal machines that were within the canisters stepped out. Looking back at the control panel, the being once again pressed and dragged some of the glyphs on the screen before throwing them into the space around him. An impressive hologram of planets, moons, suns and asteroids floated in the space around the being. As he looked through the hologram and observed the solar system that it was currently in. It focused on its present position. According to the hologram, they were on the moon of a planet that was very distant from their homeworld. The name of the planet that the moon was orbiting had a name in the database but according to the information log of the planet, the natives called it "Earth". The being observed this "Earth" and gazed upon the terrain of this planet. It was so primal. So insignificant. The alien species that thrived on the planet were tiny and pitiful creatures. They were carbon based lifeforms and consisted of a fleshy exterior and a solid interior. There was more information in the database about the planet. There was a presence. One which the being had not seen in a millennia.

Cybertronians…

It appeared that there were currently a dozen Cybertronians taking refuge on the planet. The being's scowl grew. How desperate and lowly must these Cybertronians be if they had sought refuge on such a primitive planet filled with lesser beings? It swiped the hologram back into the control panel and stalked away into an elevator. The elevator shot up at breakneck speed, covering the distance from the bottom to the top in less than a minute. The being stepped out of the elevator and walked into the ship's control room. There was controls, holograms and displays everywhere in this room showing figures and more glyphs and symbols. On each side of the room was a canister. Both occupied by metal beings like the ones below. These faces were also more distinguished from the other beings that occupied the lower floors of the ship. The one on the right was thinner and narrower giving a feminine impression. It also had larger lips and instead of two optics it had four. The one of the left did not appear to have a face but more of a helmet that hid its face. There were three slashes that ran from the top right to the bottom left of the helmet; this one had clearly been in a savage fight.

A holographic control panel beamed in front of the being. The crimson display showed the two other beings and their data. Both were at optimum efficiency. They were ready to be awoken. Using both hands, the being threw holographic symbols towards each of the canisters and observed as they hissed and shifted revealing the beings within. The feminine one stepped out of the canister and looked towards the being that had awoken it. It only gave a brief glance before it started towards the ship's controls. The other being on the left had also taken a seat at the left controls for the ship. The first being then walked as a large metal seat transformed before it. As it sat down another crimson display exploded into existence. Pressing on a three glyphs in a precise way, the nightmare ship finally burst into life. As the engines roared and hissed at the rude awakening, it began to lift up from the surface of the moon it had slept on for an age. Black light shot from the thrusters of the ship giving it momentum and it shot through space, going faster than conceivable. The ship's initial ignition had left another large crater on the surface of the moon. The vessel hurtled through space; its destination was the planet that had been shown to the being on the hologram before. The "Earth" planet. The Cybertronians that had taken refuge on the planet would be extinguished. In the most brutal and sadistic manor possible. A display appeared in front of the being. It translated into a language that was foreign to it but it spoke the language so fluently and properly you would have thought it had visited Earth before.

"Let us show these Cybertronians and these humans a proper Unicronian greeting".


End file.
